How do we make S2K better?

[Jagno]

I'm with Mary. Preparing for a hurricane and the long recovery from the effects of one are two totally different discussions. I darn sure don't want to hear about someone saying how this or that will save your home when I did all those things and my home is gone. I'm not trying to be rude in any way and I don't wish this devestation on anyone. Yes, I have and will continue to prepare each and every year for hurricane season but when you lose your home to one prepping is not what you want to discuss.

I want to be able to speak to others who are feeling the pain, loss and frustration of rebuilding just as I am experiencing and hopefully gain some insite through their experiences or share some things I've learned through my experience with them.

[MSRobi911]

I'm with Mary. Preparing for a hurricane and the long recovery from the effects of one are two totally different discussions. I darn sure don't want to hear about someone saying how this or that will save your home when I did all those things and my home is gone. I'm not trying to be rude in any way and I don't wish this devestation on anyone. Yes, I have and will continue to prepare each and every year for hurricane season but when you lose your home to one prepping is not what you want to discuss.

I want to be able to speak to others who are feeling the pain, loss and frustration of rebuilding just as I am experiencing and hopefully gain some insite through their experiences or share some things I've learned through my experience with them.

AMEN!

Mary
and thanks

[wxmann_91]

All right, then it would probably be best to keep the Recovery and Preparation separate.

Another suggestion - is there a way, with the current forum software, to view the post number within a thread? I know, you're probably thinking, what? I'll give an example... the first post of the thread says Post #1, the second of the thread says Post #2, and so on.

[greeng13]

Not sure if it has been mentioned or not...but...

I see many threads with more than 10 pages. I might like to read them all but I can only click on "Page 1" or "Page 11", etc..

I realize that there is no link for all 16, 20, 30 whatever pages but it would be nice to click to "Page 2" instead of "Page 11". And I also realize this is for those that frequent the site on a daily/weekly basis.

Just my $.02

[wxmann_91]

Greeng,

There is a way to jump to a page.

I'll start with this thread. The url of this page of this thread is: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=94870&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=80

Note the last part of the URL: "...a&start=80"

Change the 80 to a 20. Then to a 40. Then to a 60. Tell me what you observe.

[O Town]

Hmmm, wxmann_91 that link takes me to the index page. I was excited to try that, I also find it a pain when searching for something to have to go page by page instead of being able to jump to page I want to view.

I opened a different thread and watched the browswer each time I hit next to move foward a page. That last number moves up at intervals of 20....obviously 20 replies per page......Very cool. Nice trick, thanks.

[Chacor]

If you click "Go to page" next to "Previous" you can manually enter a page number, just FYI.

[O Town]

Wow Chacor!!!! I can't believe I never knew that..........DUH. That's awesome thanks for cluing us in.

[wxmann_91]

If you click "Go to page" next to "Previous" you can manually enter a page number, just FYI.

That feature was not there before. But now it is! Wonderful feature!

[O Town]

Ahhh, okay. So I wasn't as clueless as I thought.

[chadtm80]

Sorry...

Guess I should of mentioned that feature.. My bad

[wjs3]

Sorry I haven't seen this thread sooner. You all are great to ask for advice.

As some of the mods (and members) know, I really like the got a question forum. I was glad to see that a clarification was posted there which pointed out the forum is for weather questions only.

I think there are a few things that can be done with that forum specifically:

1) Just move any non-weather questions out of the forum until people "get it" that they should go elsewhere

2) There are a ton of questions that are interesting ones about the tropics that get asked in TT. For instance, philnyc asked about annular hurricanes the other day, and I answered in the TT thread.

While during quiet times (like now) the board moves slowly enough that those questions get answered in TT a lot of the time, I've seen really great questions get completely buried in an active thread during an active period.

I also think part of what's going on is that some folks are probably posting a quesiton inside of an active thread rather than asking a question openly in a new forum. They might feel dunb for creating a whole new thread in a whole new forum.

I think it would be good to snip some/all of those questions and really separate them into the "question" forum. You do that and the "question" forum becomes a resource for people who want to learn....so, next time someone wonders what an annular hurricane is, they can hop to that forum, serach, and find the answer.

2) Regarding learning...again, some of the mods know how I feel about this...I've seen other tropical sites that actually create learning modules and I love that idea. For instance, one site had a member who wrote up a whole description and history of the "cyclone phase" (cold vs warm core, asymmetric vs symemetric) that get posted here a lot.

I think Storm2K already does a great job of teaching by the way we interact with each other and with the pros, but I think it would be even stronger if we had some kind of series that we could use to educate people about the tropics...it would be a lot of work, but there are a lot of smart people here who would be willing to help.


OK...thanks for listening!

WJS3

[Terrell]

Don't automatically go to the bottom of the page when I click on a topic. Instead go to either the top of the page or the first unread post (depending on where I clicked).

[knotimpaired]

I did not read all 5 pages but page 1 struck out at me.

We owned a popular website on gardening that we no longer have that used phpbb, the same web format and own another http://www.tropicalglen.com (chad has supported us in announcing the site way back when) that also uses this same format. (music website)

I can assure you there is NO way that a admin or mod can read a private message. It is not a option. That is it, kit and caboodle.

What I would like to see if it has not been mentioned is sub cats. i.e. gardening, cooking, crafts, etc. The "Off topic" is I am sure primarily viewed and responded by females so why not try to give us gals a place to visit and chat?

[coriolis]

I just stumbled upon another new feature on the board.

I was composing a reply to a topic and before I was finished, someone else replied. I got a notification that someone else replied, it showed their response, and it asked if I want to change what I was writing!

Way cool!!!!!!

[Rainband]

That is cool I love the new board and the features. Kudos to our Boss's

[mempho]

Two things that are disappointing:

1) The USA/Winter weather areas seem to only be good if you're wanting to know about Texas. I know that there are a lot of Texans on this board, and that's great, but if there was a way to get the non-tropics forums going for snowstorms, tornados, etc. in such a way that made it applicable for people no matter where they live, I think it would be great. I'm not sure how you promote that sort of thing, though.

2) Off Topic needs to have subforums for sports (which there is), politics (which there isn't), etc. This gets people to stick around even when the weather is boring and, as such, it builds a solid sense of community.

[CajunMama]

Two things that are disappointing:

1) The USA/Winter weather areas seem to only be good if you're wanting to know about Texas. I know that there are a lot of Texans on this board, and that's great, but if there was a way to get the non-tropics forums going for snowstorms, tornados, etc. in such a way that made it applicable for people no matter where they live, I think it would be great. I'm not sure how you promote that sort of thing, though.

2) Off Topic needs to have subforums for sports (which there is), politics (which there isn't), etc. This gets people to stick around even when the weather is boring and, as such, it builds a solid sense of community.

1) The members are responsible for making certain topics active. Texas/La are active because we choose to participate in them.

2) No politics. We've had it before and it was a big headache. Believe it or not, people do stick around. But it's up to the member to become active and participate.

[JonathanBelles]

Two things that are disappointing:

1) The USA/Winter weather areas seem to only be good if you're wanting to know about Texas. I know that there are a lot of Texans on this board, and that's great, but if there was a way to get the non-tropics forums going for snowstorms, tornados, etc. in such a way that made it applicable for people no matter where they live, I think it would be great. I'm not sure how you promote that sort of thing, though.

2) Off Topic needs to have subforums for sports (which there is), politics (which there isn't), etc. This gets people to stick around even when the weather is boring and, as such, it builds a solid sense of community.

I'd just like to step in and give my $.02. Yes there is a very large TX/LA population here. There is a Florida thread as well. We do cover tornadoes and winter outbreaks.

We have a small sports forum, but this is a weather forum, not a sports forum or a politics forum. I also wish we had a politics forum, but I clearly see why we do not have one. As stated above we do not need fights breaking out and more chaos.
I stick around year round as do a few others. I wont be around as much as last year because of school, but I will be around. I will be in chat nearly every night when possible. There are a few people after 10 or 11pm every night all year long.

[vbhoutex]

Two things that are disappointing:

1) The USA/Winter weather areas seem to only be good if you're wanting to know about Texas. I know that there are a lot of Texans on this board, and that's great, but if there was a way to get the non-tropics forums going for snowstorms, tornados, etc. in such a way that made it applicable for people no matter where they live, I think it would be great. I'm not sure how you promote that sort of thing, though.

2) Off Topic needs to have subforums for sports (which there is), politics (which there isn't), etc. This gets people to stick around even when the weather is boring and, as such, it builds a solid sense of community.

As far as the Winter Weather and USA Weather forums are concerned we do all we can to promote participation in those forums all year round(which seems to be happening in the USA Weather forum). I must echo what CajunMama said here. It is up to the members(and anyone they may recruit that is interested in those weather forums also to keep these threads active. Yes we do have large concentrations in a few states, but we are truly a worldwide weather site with participation from every continent except Antarctica. If someone knows a better way to get the Winter Weather forum as active as our Tropical Forums are in the summer(much less year around)I am all ears. Constructive comments and criticism are always welcome.

We've tried the Politics route, and as much as I would love to have that available, IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN, due to the fact that no matter how hard we try we cannot keep arguments between the members civil. We have pleaded till we are all the colors of all shades of the rainbow for civility and it doesn't happen and it was way too much work for the staff to handle. The staff does like to enjoy the site also and we never had time to when we had a political forum.